CHAPTER X
"The most Wonderful Things have Happened"
The most wonderful things have happened and are continually happeningto us. All the paper that I possess consists of five old note-booksand a lot of scraps, and I have only the one stylographic pencil; butso long as I can move my hand I will continue to set down ourexperiences and impressions, for, since we are the only men of thewhole human race to see such things, it is of enormous importance thatI should record them whilst they are fresh in my memory and before thatfate which seems to be constantly impending does actually overtake us.Whether Zambo can at last take these letters to the river, or whether Ishall myself in some miraculous way carry them back with me, or,finally, whether some daring explorer, coming upon our tracks with theadvantage, perhaps, of a perfected monoplane, should find this bundleof manuscript, in any case I can see that what I am writing is destinedto immortality as a classic of true adventure.
On the morning after our being trapped upon the plateau by thevillainous Gomez we began a new stage in our experiences. The firstincident in it was not such as to give me a very favorable opinion ofthe place to which we had wandered. As I roused myself from a shortnap after day had dawned, my eyes fell upon a most singular appearanceupon my own leg. My trouser had slipped up, exposing a few inches ofmy skin above my sock. On this there rested a large, purplish grape.Astonished at the sight, I leaned forward to pick it off, when, to myhorror, it burst between my finger and thumb, squirting blood in everydirection. My cry of disgust had brought the two professors to my side.
"Most interesting," said Summerlee, bending over my shin. "An enormousblood-tick, as yet, I believe, unclassified."
"The first-fruits of our labors," said Challenger in his booming,pedantic fashion. "We cannot do less than call it Ixodes Maloni. Thevery small inconvenience of being bitten, my young friend, cannot, I amsure, weigh with you as against the glorious privilege of having yourname inscribed in the deathless roll of zoology. Unhappily you havecrushed this fine specimen at the moment of satiation."
"Filthy vermin!" I cried.
Professor Challenger raised his great eyebrows in protest, and placed asoothing paw upon my shoulder.
"You should cultivate the scientific eye and the detached scientificmind," said he. "To a man of philosophic temperament like myself theblood-tick, with its lancet-like proboscis and its distending stomach,is as beautiful a work of Nature as the peacock or, for that matter,the aurora borealis. It pains me to hear you speak of it in sounappreciative a fashion. No doubt, with due diligence, we can securesome other specimen."
"There can be no doubt of that," said Summerlee, grimly, "for one hasjust disappeared behind your shirt-collar."
Challenger sprang into the air bellowing like a bull, and torefrantically at his coat and shirt to get them off. Summerlee and Ilaughed so that we could hardly help him. At last we exposed thatmonstrous torso (fifty-four inches, by the tailor's tape). His bodywas all matted with black hair, out of which jungle we picked thewandering tick before it had bitten him. But the bushes round werefull of the horrible pests, and it was clear that we must shift ourcamp.
But first of all it was necessary to make our arrangements with thefaithful negro, who appeared presently on the pinnacle with a number oftins of cocoa and biscuits, which he tossed over to us. Of the storeswhich remained below he was ordered to retain as much as would keep himfor two months. The Indians were to have the remainder as a reward fortheir services and as payment for taking our letters back to theAmazon. Some hours later we saw them in single file far out upon theplain, each with a bundle on his head, making their way back along thepath we had come. Zambo occupied our little tent at the base of thepinnacle, and there he remained, our one link with the world below.
And now we had to decide upon our immediate movements. We shifted ourposition from among the tick-laden bushes until we came to a smallclearing thickly surrounded by trees upon all sides. There were someflat slabs of rock in the center, with an excellent well close by, andthere we sat in cleanly comfort while we made our first plans for theinvasion of this new country. Birds were calling among thefoliage--especially one with a peculiar whooping cry which was new tous--but beyond these sounds there were no signs of life.
Our first care was to make some sort of list of our own stores, so thatwe might know what we had to rely upon. What with the things we hadourselves brought up and those which Zambo had sent across on the rope,we were fairly well supplied. Most important of all, in view of thedangers which might surround us, we had our four rifles and onethousand three hundred rounds, also a shot-gun, but not more than ahundred and fifty medium pellet cartridges. In the matter ofprovisions we had enough to last for several weeks, with a sufficiencyof tobacco and a few scientific implements, including a large telescopeand a good field-glass. All these things we collected together in theclearing, and as a first precaution, we cut down with our hatchet andknives a number of thorny bushes, which we piled round in a circle somefifteen yards in diameter. This was to be our headquarters for thetime--our place of refuge against sudden danger and the guard-house forour stores. Fort Challenger, we called it.
It was midday before we had made ourselves secure, but the heat was notoppressive, and the general character of the plateau, both in itstemperature and in its vegetation, was almost temperate. The beech,the oak, and even the birch were to be found among the tangle of treeswhich girt us in. One huge gingko tree, topping all the others, shotits great limbs and maidenhair foliage over the fort which we hadconstructed. In its shade we continued our discussion, while LordJohn, who had quickly taken command in the hour of action, gave us hisviews.
"So long as neither man nor beast has seen or heard us, we are safe,"said he. "From the time they know we are here our troubles begin.There are no signs that they have found us out as yet. So our gamesurely is to lie low for a time and spy out the land. We want to havea good look at our neighbors before we get on visitin' terms."
"But we must advance," I ventured to remark.
"By all means, sonny my boy! We will advance. But with common sense.We must never go so far that we can't get back to our base. Above all,we must never, unless it is life or death, fire off our guns."
"But YOU fired yesterday," said Summerlee.
"Well, it couldn't be helped. However, the wind was strong and blewoutwards. It is not likely that the sound could have traveled far intothe plateau. By the way, what shall we call this place? I suppose itis up to us to give it a name?"
There were several suggestions, more or less happy, but Challenger'swas final.
"It can only have one name," said he. "It is called after the pioneerwho discovered it. It is Maple White Land."
Maple White Land it became, and so it is named in that chart which hasbecome my special task. So it will, I trust, appear in the atlas ofthe future.
The peaceful penetration of Maple White Land was the pressing subjectbefore us. We had the evidence of our own eyes that the place wasinhabited by some unknown creatures, and there was that of MapleWhite's sketch-book to show that more dreadful and more dangerousmonsters might still appear. That there might also prove to be humanoccupants and that they were of a malevolent character was suggested bythe skeleton impaled upon the bamboos, which could not have got therehad it not been dropped from above. Our situation, stranded withoutpossibility of escape in such a land, was clearly full of danger, andour reasons endorsed every measure of caution which Lord John'sexperience could suggest. Yet it was surely impossible that we shouldhalt on the edge of this world of mystery when our very souls weretingling with impatience to push forward and to pluck the heart from it.
We therefore blocked the entrance to our zareba by filling it up withseveral thorny bushes, and left our camp with the stores entirelysurrounded by this protecting hedge. We then slowly and cautiously setforth into the unknown, following the course of the little stream whichflowed from o
ur spring, as it should always serve us as a guide on ourreturn.
Hardly had we started when we came across signs that there were indeedwonders awaiting us. After a few hundred yards of thick forest,containing many trees which were quite unknown to me, but whichSummerlee, who was the botanist of the party, recognized as forms ofconifera and of cycadaceous plants which have long passed away in theworld below, we entered a region where the stream widened out andformed a considerable bog. High reeds of a peculiar type grew thicklybefore us, which were pronounced to be equisetacea, or mare's-tails,with tree-ferns scattered amongst them, all of them swaying in a briskwind. Suddenly Lord John, who was walking first, halted with upliftedhand.
"Look at this!" said he. "By George, this must be the trail of thefather of all birds!"
An enormous three-toed track was imprinted in the soft mud before us.The creature, whatever it was, had crossed the swamp and had passed oninto the forest. We all stopped to examine that monstrous spoor. Ifit were indeed a bird--and what animal could leave such a mark?--itsfoot was so much larger than an ostrich's that its height upon the samescale must be enormous. Lord John looked eagerly round him and slippedtwo cartridges into his elephant-gun.
"I'll stake my good name as a shikarree," said he, "that the track is afresh one. The creature has not passed ten minutes. Look how thewater is still oozing into that deeper print! By Jove! See, here isthe mark of a little one!"
Sure enough, smaller tracks of the same general form were runningparallel to the large ones.
"But what do you make of this?" cried Professor Summerlee,triumphantly, pointing to what looked like the huge print of afive-fingered human hand appearing among the three-toed marks.
"Wealden!" cried Challenger, in an ecstasy. "I've seen them in theWealden clay. It is a creature walking erect upon three-toed feet, andoccasionally putting one of its five-fingered forepaws upon the ground.Not a bird, my dear Roxton--not a bird."
"A beast?"
"No; a reptile--a dinosaur. Nothing else could have left such a track.They puzzled a worthy Sussex doctor some ninety years ago; but who inthe world could have hoped--hoped--to have seen a sight like that?"
His words died away into a whisper, and we all stood in motionlessamazement. Following the tracks, we had left the morass and passedthrough a screen of brushwood and trees. Beyond was an open glade, andin this were five of the most extraordinary creatures that I have everseen. Crouching down among the bushes, we observed them at our leisure.
There were, as I say, five of them, two being adults and three youngones. In size they were enormous. Even the babies were as big aselephants, while the two large ones were far beyond all creatures Ihave ever seen. They had slate-colored skin, which was scaled like alizard's and shimmered where the sun shone upon it. All five weresitting up, balancing themselves upon their broad, powerful tails andtheir huge three-toed hind-feet, while with their small five-fingeredfront-feet they pulled down the branches upon which they browsed. I donot know that I can bring their appearance home to you better than bysaying that they looked like monstrous kangaroos, twenty feet inlength, and with skins like black crocodiles.
I do not know how long we stayed motionless gazing at this marvelousspectacle. A strong wind blew towards us and we were well concealed,so there was no chance of discovery. From time to time the little onesplayed round their parents in unwieldy gambols, the great beastsbounding into the air and falling with dull thuds upon the earth. Thestrength of the parents seemed to be limitless, for one of them, havingsome difficulty in reaching a bunch of foliage which grew upon aconsiderable-sized tree, put his fore-legs round the trunk and tore itdown as if it had been a sapling. The action seemed, as I thought, toshow not only the great development of its muscles, but also the smallone of its brain, for the whole weight came crashing down upon the topof it, and it uttered a series of shrill yelps to show that, big as itwas, there was a limit to what it could endure. The incident made itthink, apparently, that the neighborhood was dangerous, for it slowlylurched off through the wood, followed by its mate and its threeenormous infants. We saw the shimmering slaty gleam of their skinsbetween the tree-trunks, and their heads undulating high above thebrush-wood. Then they vanished from our sight.
I looked at my comrades. Lord John was standing at gaze with hisfinger on the trigger of his elephant-gun, his eager hunter's soulshining from his fierce eyes. What would he not give for one such headto place between the two crossed oars above the mantelpiece in hissnuggery at the Albany! And yet his reason held him in, for all ourexploration of the wonders of this unknown land depended upon ourpresence being concealed from its inhabitants. The two professors werein silent ecstasy. In their excitement they had unconsciously seizedeach other by the hand, and stood like two little children in thepresence of a marvel, Challenger's cheeks bunched up into a seraphicsmile, and Summerlee's sardonic face softening for the moment intowonder and reverence.
"Nunc dimittis!" he cried at last. "What will they say in England ofthis?"
"My dear Summerlee, I will tell you with great confidence exactly whatthey will say in England," said Challenger. "They will say that youare an infernal liar and a scientific charlatan, exactly as you andothers said of me."
"In the face of photographs?"
"Faked, Summerlee! Clumsily faked!"
"In the face of specimens?"
"Ah, there we may have them! Malone and his filthy Fleet Street crewmay be all yelping our praises yet. August the twenty-eighth--the daywe saw five live iguanodons in a glade of Maple White Land. Put itdown in your diary, my young friend, and send it to your rag."
"And be ready to get the toe-end of the editorial boot in return," saidLord John. "Things look a bit different from the latitude of London,young fellah my lad. There's many a man who never tells hisadventures, for he can't hope to be believed. Who's to blame them?For this will seem a bit of a dream to ourselves in a month or two.WHAT did you say they were?"
"Iguanodons," said Summerlee. "You'll find their footmarks all overthe Hastings sands, in Kent, and in Sussex. The South of England wasalive with them when there was plenty of good lush green-stuff to keepthem going. Conditions have changed, and the beasts died. Here itseems that the conditions have not changed, and the beasts have lived."
"If ever we get out of this alive, I must have a head with me," saidLord John. "Lord, how some of that Somaliland-Uganda crowd would turna beautiful pea-green if they saw it! I don't know what you chapsthink, but it strikes me that we are on mighty thin ice all this time."
I had the same feeling of mystery and danger around us. In the gloomof the trees there seemed a constant menace and as we looked up intotheir shadowy foliage vague terrors crept into one's heart. It is truethat these monstrous creatures which we had seen were lumbering,inoffensive brutes which were unlikely to hurt anyone, but in thisworld of wonders what other survivals might there not be--what fierce,active horrors ready to pounce upon us from their lair among the rocksor brushwood? I knew little of prehistoric life, but I had a clearremembrance of one book which I had read in which it spoke of creatureswho would live upon our lions and tigers as a cat lives upon mice.What if these also were to be found in the woods of Maple White Land!
It was destined that on this very morning--our first in the newcountry--we were to find out what strange hazards lay around us. Itwas a loathsome adventure, and one of which I hate to think. If, asLord John said, the glade of the iguanodons will remain with us as adream, then surely the swamp of the pterodactyls will forever be ournightmare. Let me set down exactly what occurred.
We passed very slowly through the woods, partly because Lord Roxtonacted as scout before he would let us advance, and partly because atevery second step one or other of our professors would fall, with a cryof wonder, before some flower or insect which presented him with a newtype. We may have traveled two or three miles in all, keeping to theright of the line of the stream, when we came upon a considerableopening in th
e trees. A belt of brushwood led up to a tangle ofrocks--the whole plateau was strewn with boulders. We were walkingslowly towards these rocks, among bushes which reached over our waists,when we became aware of a strange low gabbling and whistling sound,which filled the air with a constant clamor and appeared to come fromsome spot immediately before us. Lord John held up his hand as asignal for us to stop, and he made his way swiftly, stooping andrunning, to the line of rocks. We saw him peep over them and give agesture of amazement. Then he stood staring as if forgetting us, soutterly entranced was he by what he saw. Finally he waved us to comeon, holding up his hand as a signal for caution. His whole bearingmade me feel that something wonderful but dangerous lay before us.
Creeping to his side, we looked over the rocks. The place into whichwe gazed was a pit, and may, in the early days, have been one of thesmaller volcanic blow-holes of the plateau. It was bowl-shaped and atthe bottom, some hundreds of yards from where we lay, were pools ofgreen-scummed, stagnant water, fringed with bullrushes. It was a weirdplace in itself, but its occupants made it seem like a scene from theSeven Circles of Dante. The place was a rookery of pterodactyls.There were hundreds of them congregated within view. All the bottomarea round the water-edge was alive with their young ones, and withhideous mothers brooding upon their leathery, yellowish eggs. Fromthis crawling flapping mass of obscene reptilian life came the shockingclamor which filled the air and the mephitic, horrible, musty odorwhich turned us sick. But above, perched each upon its own stone,tall, gray, and withered, more like dead and dried specimens thanactual living creatures, sat the horrible males, absolutely motionlesssave for the rolling of their red eyes or an occasional snap of theirrat-trap beaks as a dragon-fly went past them. Their huge, membranouswings were closed by folding their fore-arms, so that they sat likegigantic old women, wrapped in hideous web-colored shawls, and withtheir ferocious heads protruding above them. Large and small, not lessthan a thousand of these filthy creatures lay in the hollow before us.
Our professors would gladly have stayed there all day, so entrancedwere they by this opportunity of studying the life of a prehistoricage. They pointed out the fish and dead birds lying about among therocks as proving the nature of the food of these creatures, and I heardthem congratulating each other on having cleared up the point why thebones of this flying dragon are found in such great numbers in certainwell-defined areas, as in the Cambridge Green-sand, since it was nowseen that, like penguins, they lived in gregarious fashion.
Finally, however, Challenger, bent upon proving some point whichSummerlee had contested, thrust his head over the rock and nearlybrought destruction upon us all. In an instant the nearest male gave ashrill, whistling cry, and flapped its twenty-foot span of leatherywings as it soared up into the air. The females and young ones huddledtogether beside the water, while the whole circle of sentinels rose oneafter the other and sailed off into the sky. It was a wonderful sightto see at least a hundred creatures of such enormous size and hideousappearance all swooping like swallows with swift, shearing wing-strokesabove us; but soon we realized that it was not one on which we couldafford to linger. At first the great brutes flew round in a huge ring,as if to make sure what the exact extent of the danger might be. Then,the flight grew lower and the circle narrower, until they were whizzinground and round us, the dry, rustling flap of their huge slate-coloredwings filling the air with a volume of sound that made me think ofHendon aerodrome upon a race day.
"Make for the wood and keep together," cried Lord John, clubbing hisrifle. "The brutes mean mischief."
The moment we attempted to retreat the circle closed in upon us, untilthe tips of the wings of those nearest to us nearly touched our faces.We beat at them with the stocks of our guns, but there was nothingsolid or vulnerable to strike. Then suddenly out of the whizzing,slate-colored circle a long neck shot out, and a fierce beak made athrust at us. Another and another followed. Summerlee gave a cry andput his hand to his face, from which the blood was streaming. I felt aprod at the back of my neck, and turned dizzy with the shock.Challenger fell, and as I stooped to pick him up I was again struckfrom behind and dropped on the top of him. At the same instant I heardthe crash of Lord John's elephant-gun, and, looking up, saw one of thecreatures with a broken wing struggling upon the ground, spitting andgurgling at us with a wide-opened beak and blood-shot, goggled eyes,like some devil in a medieval picture. Its comrades had flown higherat the sudden sound, and were circling above our heads.
"Now," cried Lord John, "now for our lives!"
We staggered through the brushwood, and even as we reached the treesthe harpies were on us again. Summerlee was knocked down, but we torehim up and rushed among the trunks. Once there we were safe, for thosehuge wings had no space for their sweep beneath the branches. As welimped homewards, sadly mauled and discomfited, we saw them for a longtime flying at a great height against the deep blue sky above ourheads, soaring round and round, no bigger than wood-pigeons, with theireyes no doubt still following our progress. At last, however, as wereached the thicker woods they gave up the chase, and we saw them nomore.
"A most interesting and convincing experience," said Challenger, as wehalted beside the brook and he bathed a swollen knee. "We areexceptionally well informed, Summerlee, as to the habits of the enragedpterodactyl."
Summerlee was wiping the blood from a cut in his forehead, while I wastying up a nasty stab in the muscle of the neck. Lord John had theshoulder of his coat torn away, but the creature's teeth had onlygrazed the flesh.
"It is worth noting," Challenger continued, "that our young friend hasreceived an undoubted stab, while Lord John's coat could only have beentorn by a bite. In my own case, I was beaten about the head by theirwings, so we have had a remarkable exhibition of their various methodsof offence."
"It has been touch and go for our lives," said Lord John, gravely, "andI could not think of a more rotten sort of death than to be outed bysuch filthy vermin. I was sorry to fire my rifle, but, by Jove! therewas no great choice."
"We should not be here if you hadn't," said I, with conviction.
"It may do no harm," said he. "Among these woods there must be manyloud cracks from splitting or falling trees which would be just likethe sound of a gun. But now, if you are of my opinion, we have hadthrills enough for one day, and had best get back to the surgical boxat the camp for some carbolic. Who knows what venom these beasts mayhave in their hideous jaws?"
But surely no men ever had just such a day since the world began. Somefresh surprise was ever in store for us. When, following the course ofour brook, we at last reached our glade and saw the thorny barricade ofour camp, we thought that our adventures were at an end. But we hadsomething more to think of before we could rest. The gate of FortChallenger had been untouched, the walls were unbroken, and yet it hadbeen visited by some strange and powerful creature in our absence. Nofoot-mark showed a trace of its nature, and only the overhanging branchof the enormous ginko tree suggested how it might have come and gone;but of its malevolent strength there was ample evidence in thecondition of our stores. They were strewn at random all over theground, and one tin of meat had been crushed into pieces so as toextract the contents. A case of cartridges had been shattered intomatchwood, and one of the brass shells lay shredded into pieces besideit. Again the feeling of vague horror came upon our souls, and wegazed round with frightened eyes at the dark shadows which lay aroundus, in all of which some fearsome shape might be lurking. How good itwas when we were hailed by the voice of Zambo, and, going to the edgeof the plateau, saw him sitting grinning at us upon the top of theopposite pinnacle.
"All well, Massa Challenger, all well!" he cried. "Me stay here. Nofear. You always find me when you want."
His honest black face, and the immense view before us, which carried ushalf-way back to the affluent of the Amazon, helped us to remember thatwe really were upon this earth in the twentieth century, and had not bysome magic been conveyed to some raw pla
net in its earliest and wildeststate. How difficult it was to realize that the violet line upon thefar horizon was well advanced to that great river upon which hugesteamers ran, and folk talked of the small affairs of life, while we,marooned among the creatures of a bygone age, could but gaze towards itand yearn for all that it meant!
One other memory remains with me of this wonderful day, and with it Iwill close this letter. The two professors, their tempers aggravatedno doubt by their injuries, had fallen out as to whether our assailantswere of the genus pterodactylus or dimorphodon, and high words hadensued. To avoid their wrangling I moved some little way apart, andwas seated smoking upon the trunk of a fallen tree, when Lord Johnstrolled over in my direction.
"I say, Malone," said he, "do you remember that place where thosebeasts were?"
"Very clearly."
"A sort of volcanic pit, was it not?"
"Exactly," said I.
"Did you notice the soil?"
"Rocks."
"But round the water--where the reeds were?"
"It was a bluish soil. It looked like clay."
"Exactly. A volcanic tube full of blue clay."
"What of that?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing, nothing," said he, and strolled back to where the voicesof the contending men of science rose in a prolonged duet, the high,strident note of Summerlee rising and falling to the sonorous bass ofChallenger. I should have thought no more of Lord John's remark wereit not that once again that night I heard him mutter to himself: "Blueclay--clay in a volcanic tube!" They were the last words I heard beforeI dropped into an exhausted sleep.
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